Customer Feedback

If you can stand it (not sure I can), one last post re BlogHer.  I think Maria Niles at Fizz from Consumer Pop summed up the whole GM/BlogHer effort best - writing Why I might buy a Saturn:

I learned about Saturns when I wrote a paper on the company for a labor-management relations class I took in college.  I fell in love with the idea and the execution - taking the best bits from car makers around the world, getting out of the hidebound Detroit mentality both in practice and in geography, empowering the workers to stop the line when they thought necessary and, best of all, no haggle pricing.  My first Saturn was amazing.  The quality was fantastic, it held its value for resale and we early-adopter Saturn owners did the knowing-nod thing whenever we passed on the road.  I always called it my hip suburban soccer mom car even though I was a decidedly urban singleton.  The styling was just so quirky-ugly that it's cool looking that it stood out while the car retained its roominess and functionality.

But then the styling didn't change.  And the quality declined.  And they stopped building them on the special Saturn line and became just another GM car.  The L-series drove nice enough when I considered buying a third Saturn but it got solid black circles in Consumer Reports.  Kiss of death.

When GM announced the new direction with the Sky and Aura focusing on performance and insisting that the only thing consumers cared about from Saturn was the no haggle pricing I swore I would never buy another Saturn (the only GM car I would consider).  GM, especially with the Pontiac brand, is doing a great job of launching sexy cars.  But it is not enough.  And claiming that consumers don't know about and don't care about the other stuff is evidence of doing a poor job of listening to and understanding consumers and insulting them to boot.

...But GM gave me a chance to change my mind and give them another chance.  I want my next car to be a small SUV hybrid.  I have been considering the Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner.  The Toyota Highlander is a bit big and the Lexus was priced too high and engineered for performance rather than fuel savings.  I've also thought about the non-hybrid Honda Element and Toyota Rav-4.  If I keep waiting, though, there will probably be hybrid versions of those soon enough.  And, yes I know, biodiesel but not until you don't have to make your own fuel and your car won't stink of old french fries or pot stickers.

Saturn was at BlogHer, though.  With cars to drive, including the Vue Hybrid.  Saturn didn't wait until I wised up to their revamped strategy and decided to forgive and forget.  They came to me.  I didn't have to brave the gauntlet of going to a car dealership and "what will it take to get you into a car today, honey?" (because no haggle does not mean no pressure).  I got to drive a Vue in a pressure-free way that allowed me to be open minded and admit that it was a sweet ride - nicer than the Escape Hybrid, in fact.  And the no-haggle pricing means that I won't have the experience I did at a Ford dealership where they insisted that they had to charge $5,000 over full MSRP.  I told them to give me a call when they would take just MSRP.  I haven't heard back in almost a year, now.

Even if I hadn't been to BlogHer or had a chance to drive, the reports from the bloggers I read would have swayed me to reconsider.  Smart Saturn, smart.

Enough said - here's the other video I made from interviews re the Saturn Vue Hybrid:

Comments

[Maria Niles]

Nellie,

Thank you so much for the kind mention. And congratulations on the well deserved praise and positive response to the program. You are doing a great job of tracking and following up.

Best,
Maria